1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus to control a temperature of a fuser by using a power capsule, and an image forming apparatus including the apparatus to control a temperature of a fuser, whereby the image forming apparatus may appropriately maintain the temperature of the fuser so that the requirements for flicker and harmonic characteristics of the image forming apparatus with respect to the fuser may be satisfied.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to satisfy the power consumption regulations for image forming apparatuses, it is necessary to reduce the print waiting time thereof. For this, a heat rise function, or a function to increase the heat, of a heat pipe is increased by decreasing a heat capacity of the heat pipe in a fuser system. However, from a control point of view, if the heat rise function of the heat pipe is increased, the number of ON/OFF times that a heater increases and thus a flicker characteristic deteriorates. Also, when the heat capacity of the heat pipe decreases, power control of the heat pipe becomes difficult, and thus, a heat rise function of a fuser creates a ripple which deteriorates the flicker characteristic. Also, when a phase control is performed to address this deterioration, a harmonic characteristic deteriorates.